Air, road, rail traffic disrupted as fog blankets Delhi; mercury plunges to 6°C

Air, road, and rail traffic were disrupted as a thick layer of fog blanketed Delhi on Wednesday and plunged visibility to zero in parts of the city even as the mercury plunged to 6°C and the air quality deteriorated to the “very poor” category.

The maximum temperature was a degree below normal. It was 8.9°C a day earlier. An Air Quality Index (AQI) of 356 (very poor) was recorded at 9am compared to 275 (poor) at 4pm on Tuesday. Fog and low wind speed led to the sudden deterioration in the air quality.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert asking people to drive carefully amid the thick fog. IMD scientist RK Jenamani said the visibility was around 200 metres at Safdarjung, which is representative of Delhi’s weather, and 150 metres at Palam at around 5:30 am. It dipped further in the next four hours. “By 8:30am, visibility was between zero and 100 metres at most places. At 9am, it was zero at both Safdarjung and Palam.”

Flight operations were impacted as all four runways had a visual range between 75 and 300 metres. No flights were diverted but over 200 were delayed as per the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

In a post on X at 7:35am, the Delhi airport said, “While landings and takeoffs continue, flights that are not CAT-3 [which allow pilots to land even in low visibility] compliant may get affected.” Northern Railways said at least 26 trains were running late by over an hour.